The English Education Programs are housed in the Department of Theory & Practice in Teacher Education, Secondary Content Fields area in the CEHHS. Courses in this program are available to students who have been admitted to a licensure program or graduate education degree program.
Faculty responsible for the Master’s level English education programs refer to the NCTE Guidelines for the Preparation of Teachers of English Language Arts (1996) to provide a view of what we believe beginning teachers should know and be able to do. Underlying this view is a set of principles which “govern the detailed beliefs, understandings, and skills that we believe must mark the teacher who emerges from an effective English language arts teacher-preparation program” (p.7).
Pedagogical/Content Knowledge
- Structure English language arts holistically.
- Structure the classroom in a manner that encourages students to work independently and collaboratively.
- Use a variety of materials and media.
- Plan interdisciplinary units.
- Create learning environments which promote respect for, and understanding of, individual academic, ethnic, racial, language, cultural, and gender differences.
- Stimulate students in an active, mind-engaging process.
- Use student creations as part of the instructional program.
- Incorporate technology.
- Promote classroom discourse in which student thinking is respected and challenged by the teacher and other students.
- Use frequent and immediate feedback to help students construct new understandings and acquire new skills.
- Develop ways to communicate assessment methods and results to different audiences.
- Use assessment outcomes to improve instruction.
- Enrich and expand the learner’s language resources for different social and cultural settings.
- Engage learners in discussion, interpretation, and evaluation of ideas, whether presented in oral, written, or visual form.
- Design instruction that reflects language as a human creation.
- Build a reading, listening, and viewing community where students respond, interpret, think critically, and contrast ideas with others.
- Engage learners in transactions with literature.
- Promote media literacy.
Attitudes
- A recognition that all students can learn and are worthy of a teacher’s attention in the English language arts classroom.
- A desire to use the English language arts curriculum to help students become familiar with diverse peoples and cultures.
- A respect and enthusiasm for the individual language, dialect,bi-dialectal competence, and other language variations of each student.
- A conviction that teachers help students grow by encouraging creative and appropriate uses of language.
- A willingness to seek a match between students’ needs and teachers’ objectives, methods, and materials for instruction in English language arts that places students’ needs at the center of the curriculum.
- A willingness to encourage students to respond critically to different media and communications technology.
- A commitment to continued professional growth in the teaching of the English language arts.
- A pride in teaching the English language arts and a willingness to take informed stands on issues of professional concern.
- A sensitivity to the impact that events and developments in the world outside the school have on teachers, their colleagues,their students, and the English language arts curriculum.
- An enthusiasm for developing lifelong habits of mind to facilitate clear thinking and critical judgment.
- A recognition of the value of diversity of opinion.
- A desire to promote the arts and humanities in the daily lives of all students.
- A commitment to encourage students to read and write about the special insights and feelings they derive from literature.
Degrees
| Graduate Programs | |
|---|---|
| English Education MS Educational Studies | English Education MS Professional Internship |
| Specialist in Education Elementary Education | English Education Doctor of Philosophy |